A compromise between the county and city may be in the works regarding parking at the county’s new courthouse.
The city of Delaware’s parking and safety committee tabled making a decision regarding on-street parking in front of the new Delaware County courthouse along North Sandusky Street at its meeting Monday.
With downtown parking at a premium, the city would like to keep the seven spaces alongside the courthouse open for public use. However, county officials would prefer those spaces be part of a setback, blocked with bollards and mounding for security purposes.
City officials also want a new three-level county parking garage to be open to the general public after 5 p.m. on weekdays, weekends and holidays. However, the county has said the gated garage needs to be restricted to building employees, jurors, law enforcement and for prisoner transport.
A compromise may have been reached, where the city would relinquish the seven Sandusky Street spaces in exchange for public parking on the third level of the courthouse’s parking garage after business hours, according to Mayor Carolyn Kay Riggle. However, it was decided to table the measure to determine whether the previously discussed compromise was still in effect.
On Monday, the city’s parking committee was shown a diagram that shows parking at the site. Before construction began, there were 131 spaces in the west lot of the Hayes Building on North Union Street. Add to that the Sandusky Street spaces, and there are a total of 138 parking spaces.
The new judicial building’s garage would have 166 spaces. After construction, the west lot of the Hayes Building would be reduced to 123 spaces. Added up, there would be a total of 289 spaces. That is a net gain of 151 spaces over the parking before construction.
The matter would again be taken up at the next parking committee meeting on Feb. 15.
The committee did approve something to do with the courthouse, though — that the alley opposite of Court Street is a two-way alley from Union Street to the north-south alley off of Central Avenue, and then it shall become a one-way alley eastbound to Sandusky Street.
In other business, the committee approved the installation of no parking signage along the northwest side of the curve on Balleter Drive from the west side of Silverwood Drive, to approximately 100 linear feet south of 892 Balleter Drive, with parking permission on the southeast side of the drive through the curve.
Part of section two of Glenross Golf Club, the signage was first brought up at the committee’s November meeting due to a resident receiving a parking ticket and complaining there was no clarification on the restrictions. The matter had been tabled so that all the residents in the area would be notified of the meeting.
